Kathleen Hanna

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Kathleen Hanna is an American singer and writer, born in 1968 in Portland, Oregon. She became involved in feminism at a young age: as a child her mother took her to a demonstration where Gloria Steinem spoke. As a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, she founded a feminist art gallery with friends and performed spoken word about sexism and violence against women. The writer Kathy Acker advised her to start a band, because nobody came to spoken word.

Music and breakthrough

In October 1990 Hanna formed the punk band Bikini Kill in Olympia, with drummer Tobi Vail, guitarist Billy Karren and bassist Kathi Wilcox. The band made fast, raw punk and wanted to bring more women into a scene dominated by men. Joan Jett produced the single New Radio/Rebel Girl, and the albums Pussy Whipped (1994) and Reject All American (1996) followed. With members of Bratmobile, Hanna made the fanzine Riot grrrl in 1991, from which a whole movement grew. At concerts she asked women to come to the front, so that they would not be harassed in the mosh pit. After Bikini Kill she made the album Julie Ruin (1997) in her bedroom, with a cheap drum machine. She then founded the electronic punk band Le Tigre in New York.

Influence

Hanna gave punk a feminist voice and a way of working of its own: making your own fanzines, playing yourself, teaching each other instruments. Her lyrics were about girls who did and wore what they wanted. The documentary The Punk Singer (2013) tells her story.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1997Julie Ruin

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 10: Women in Pop Music^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Riot grrrl GenreBands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile found the punk scene a man's world; singer Kathleen Hanna called out ‘girls to the front’.